Note: unmarked spoilers below. Examples are listed in chronological order.
- When Mori challenges Tanica to a friendly game of Go, Tanica — a random mook accidentally turned into a tree by Sarin — leaves Mori — a 168-year-old lifetime geek who's been solving unsolvable problems since she was a wee med student — struggling.note
- Sarin is petrified by a gorgon patient. And then turns herself back.Yuri: Don't panic, don't panic ... I can fix this. I have some alsulin I always carry...
Sarin: Save it.
Yuri: Wha— how did you—?
Sarin: I am a total magical badass. - Mori meets a patient infected with a heretofore-incurable parasite. Emphasis on "heretofore".Aki: You — you already have a plan?
Mori: Not to toot my own horn, but I am a fairly fast thinker. - When Preston Chang (i.e. the Crax) is taking over Kili and Greg's shared mindscape and trying to talk Kili into giving up...
- Greg spots the flaws in his strategy to break down Kili's spirit:Chang: Worm! You are beneath my notice. You are not important and you never will be!
Greg: That's me, alright. Joe Average. You could forget I'm there if you so much as blink while talking to me. No great strengths or weaknesses. Boring. On my own I'd be easy pickings for you too. I've got no special powers. However ... you've never tried to devour two minds that can give each other strength, and you've got no idea how to attack something like that. - ...and after figuring out how to beat him...Chang: Hah! You don't even know what you're talking about, Greg.
Greg: Shut up for a moment, Preston.
[Stunned Silence] - ...motivates Kili to try and to succeed.
- Then, when the last remnant of the Crax comes back for one last try, Tomo returns and rescues them.
- Greg spots the flaws in his strategy to break down Kili's spirit:
- Sarin stops Kili's werewolf rampage with nothing but an ordinary knife.Sarin: Striking a werewolf on the head with a knife blade is a symbolic act of civilization conquering the wilderness. Calling out their name as you do it helps, too. I've heard that if you're really good at it you can actually force them back to human when you do it.
Tanica: Never heard of that one before.
Sarin: Well, obviously, a lot of people who try it for the first time end up losing a limb, so it's not popular. - After Tomo and Greg help Kili save everyone from the spirit Udo Larko summoned, Kili wolfs out, seizes him ... and burns her tattoos onto his skin.Kili: On me, they suppress my spirit vision. On a normal person, they cut it off completely. He'll never hurt anyone again.
- A group of thieves invade the clinic Goro is getting her strength infusion at — before she can get her strength infusion. Despite being outnumbered four to one, weak as a kitten, and armed with nothing but whatever medical supples she can scavenge, she takes down three of them and foils their plot before anyone outside has a chance to come to her assistance.Goro: Never underestimate a guerrilla defending their turf. This is a hospital. You're in my jungle now.
- When Mori was in medical school, her friend Lem was dying from abusing temporary sex-change potions to treat his gender dysphoria, and the doctors said there was no known treatment. Mori refused to take "we don't know what to do" for an answer, spent a day and a half straight doing research, and saved Lem's life (incidentally fixing his gender dysphoria in the process).
- When Goro was dying at Tanica's roots after fighting Smith and no-one could hear Tanica calling for help, she managed to save Goro's life by tearing out her own life force to power a healing spell.
- ...and immediately afterwards, Mori and Sarin attune a phoenix egg to Tanica in minutes to save her life.
- In Chapter 15, Kili's rematch with Preston Chang, also known as the Crax, in which she realizes that he's been dead the entire time and banishes him to the afterlife.
- In Chapter 22, we see how Rina convinced Josh to ride to the rescue.Rina: [wrapping up] That's the whole goddamn point of the Hearts Society. To help people who "can't be helped," and failing that, to give them hope we're trying!
Josh: Cary will kill us.
Rina: "Survival isn't enough." That applies to more than victims.